Diane Cibrian really loves Cops

The City Council today heard an update on PERF, the Police Executive Research Forum study, which Police Chief William McManus ordered in November 2007 to review the department’s “high risk policies,” including use-of-force, training practices and the citizen complaint process.

McManus asked the council to approve the nearly $80,000 review after a spate of use-of-force cases that sparked an outcry from civil rights groups.

Today, the council heard an update from Bob Stewart, a former police executive who is helping the department implement most of the study’s recommendations. After that, Cibrian, one of three declared candidates for mayor of San Antonio, took some time to let everyone know that she backs the good men and women in blue.

First she noted that the police department has one of the highest approval ratings of any city department. The police, she reminded listeners, “are the good guys.”

Then, referencing the Citizen Advisory Action Board, which Stewart had just finished telling the council needed reform, Cibrian asked if police officers were represented on that board. She hoped so, she explained, because sometimes citizens really don’t understand how the police department works.

That may well be true. But right now, the citizen board is about as toothless as a board can be, given that the police union has veto power over whoever sits on it — a trump card it’s unlikely to give up without a fight.

That didn’t seem to concern Cibrian, who may have weighed the voting power of those few citizens who do make complaints against the politically powerful police union.